This invention relates to apparatus for applying surgical clips to body tissue, and more particularly to clip appliers of the type which are used to apply a surgical clip to a tubular body structure. An example is the application of a clip to the vas deferens in order to perform a vasectomy.
Surgical clip appliers typically have a pair of laterally spaced, relatively movable jaws for receiving a clip to be applied to body tissue. After the jaws receive a clip, the jaws are brought together to close the clip around the tissue. A variety of methods have been employed for bringing the jaws together, including the use of a pliers-type actuator, a sleeve which interacts with the jaws to cam them closed, and direct manual pressure on the jaws. This last method is the most cumbersome and unreliable, due to the need for two-handed operation which makes the application of a clip difficult in confined working areas of the body.
Some surgical clip appliers have an element which supports an array of clips. In the prior art, this element does not function in any way to effect the camming of the jaws to close a clip around the tissue. The use of separate elements to support clips and to close clips necessarily results in instruments that are complex in construction. This tends to make the instruments bulkier, thereby possibly interfering with the operator's view of the jaws during the closing of the clips. This can be a major disadvantage in delicate surgical procedures. In addition, bulkier instruments increase the distance from the operator's hand to the clip application site, which may reduce the accuracy in placing the clips.
In view of the foregoing, it is an object of this invention to improve and simplify surgical clip applying apparatus.
It is a more particular object of this invention to provide surgical clip applying apparatus in which a single element functions both as a clip carrier and a clip closing means.